Song of the Week! 15 May 2021

 

Not sure if it's the "weekend warrior" track addition this week or the mysterious deletion (and later reinstation) of 15 of our older posts, but I do feel like some sushi today, preferably dipped into some...

DANCE2 feat. Soy Sauce Glico Pocky TVCM Song

DANCE2 feat.ソイソース／グリコ「ポッキー」TVCMソング

Game	Genre
DS1		★4 (122)	★4 (148)	★7  (253/282/336)	★8  (457/519/576)	-
AC10, AC11		★3 (122)	★4 (159)	★6  (253/282/336)		-

140
pocky

Shouyu (しょうゆ／醤油) means "soy sauce" in Japan, the umami-filled liquid condiment made with soya beans and widely used in Asia cuisines. But before Shouyu de Show you! added today, there is only one mention of the condiment in the whole Taiko no Tatsujin tracklist. Even though "Soy Sauce" (ソイソース) here is just an alias for guitarist NAOTO of the song's artist, rock band ORANGE RANGE.

The high-energy hip-hop song is perhaps most well known as the backing track to a set of TV commercial shorts for Glico's Pocky biscuit sticks, which explains the SongID. In the ads, Yui Aragaki (新垣結衣) held a few of the chocolate-coated biscuit sticks and happily danced around in a classroom and streets in Japan, and later a non-descript white-and-brown space for the "extra-thin" variety. Instead of "Dance Two", the title should be read as "Dance Dance" with the 2 meaning to double.

In Taiko no Tatsujin, the high energy translates to longer clusters of 16th notes in the bridges and fade-off, as well as other complex patterns of hanging double and even-number clusters and 12th separation mixed into 16th. Even in modern, 3rd- or 4th-generation standards, the ★8 rating would have kept rather well.

Peculiarly, despite coming out on both AC10 and DS1 (Touch de Dokodon!) on the same day of 2007/07/26, but already there exists ratings and note-count differences between the two appearances in three out of four difficulties: Kantan and Muzukashii each lost one star in the arcade version, while Futsuu has less notes in the DS version (doesn't have 8th-separation triple large notes anymore).